


Weapon

by kevintheturkey



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Mild Amedot, Still hate tags, Why Peridot has no weapon, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 21:51:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5308148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kevintheturkey/pseuds/kevintheturkey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Crystal Gems find out why Peridot has never summoned a weapon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weapon

**Author's Note:**

> Here you go, kiddies. The reason why I have nothing done in Capstone. Knock yourselves out.

Peridot regretted coming along. It wasn’t like she had wanted to come, either. No, she had been adamant about not tagging along when she had been invited.

The Pearl had expressed her desire to get a standing about her combat skills without enhancements.

The Permafusion didn’t seem keen on putting her in a battle--or that’s what Peridot thought. The fusion was always difficult for her to get a reading on.

Amethyst had been more than willing to have Peridot join them. In fact, she had hypothesised that it was Amethyst’s idea for her to tag along in the first place.

When Peridot refused to join, Amethyst argued that if they could bring Steven, then she should be just fine.

Steven didn’t seem to like Amethyst’s argument, but he wasn’t opposed to the newest addition coming with them.

After Amethyst gave her a disappointed look, she begrudgingly accepted their invitation.

When they landed on the warp in some area unfamiliar to Peridot (like most other things on this planet), she began to have her doubts on whether or not she had made the correct choice. She brushed them aside, reminding herself of what Amethyst had told her. If Steven’s fine, she’s fine.

When they came across the gem mutant, Peridot began to doubt herself again. She couldn’t fight this monster, and if the Crystal Gems thought she could then they were completely cracked. After her moment of initial panic, she began to repeat her mantra on a loop.

_If Steven’s fine, I’m fine. If Steven’s fine, I’m fine. If Steven’s fine, I’m fine. If Steven’s fine, I’m fine. If Steven’s fine, I’m fine. If Steven’s…_

By now, her mantra was the absolute last thing on her mind. She was now the target’s target, being pursued by a hideous beast that ran on four hands.

The Crystal Gems didn’t interfere. As some sort of cruel joke they watched as she was chased by the mutant. Perhaps they did it out of irony, that her now-questionable loyalty to Homeworld had somehow caused this mess.

Her fear reached newfound heights as she felt the ground fall away and she stumbled into a ditch. She felt it land beside her. She glanced up to see it on its hands, ready to poof her into nothing but dust.

Oh stars, this was how she was going to die. She wasn’t going to be eaten by the Cluster, wasn’t going to be shattered by Yellow Diamond or harvested by the Crystal Gems. She was going to be smashed by an experiment gone bad, undercooked.

She heard the crack of Amethyst’s whip, but chose to ignore it. She had already accepted this as her fate.

She decided she was saved when the Permafusion lept into the ditch and hit the thing until it poofed.

“I told you not to engage it until she summoned her weapon,” the Pearl scolded Amethyst as she slid down to join the Permafusion in the ditch.

“It was getting too close. If she was going to summon something, then it would’ve already been summoned,” argued Amethyst.

“We don’t know that!” Pearl rebutted.

“What if she doesn’t know how?” Steven suggested as he hopped down to join them.

“That’s not possible, even if Homeworld never taught her she would have figured it out at some point,” Pearl informed him.

“Wait,” Peridot butted in, “you did all of this to get me to summon a weapon?”

“Well, uh…” the Pearl hesitated.

“Yes,” Garnet was blunt.

Peridot began to laugh. Stars, they were such clods! Didn’t they pick up on anything she had said about contemporary Homeworld? Didn’t they consider that if she could summon her weapon, she would have done so already? It was just so funny.

Then, the strangest thing happened. Peridot began to cry. They didn’t know how lucky they were to be on the winning side, to experience absolute freedom. Why did she let Homeworld take all her things from her? Why did she buy into all of their crap? They were clueless, all of them. Oblivious to her and her restrictions. They were such clods.

“Peridot?” Amethyst popped her thought bubble.

She looked up to see the Gems staring at her with miffed expressions. She understood their complex expressions, or rather why they had them. Her outburst was slightly uncharacteristic of her usual temper tantrums.

She sniffed and wiped her tears, disregarding her thoughts for the time being.

“I apologize for my outburst, shall we return to the base?” She suggested, mostly because she wasn’t sure how long she could contain herself.

Thankfully, the Gems obliged and trooped silently to the warp.

They didn’t stop her when she rushed to the bathroom and shut the door on them.

She clambered into the bathtub and proceeded to break down. It was usually something that she tried to ignore. The emptiness that seemed to reverberate throughout her being. The feeling that something was missing, and the gut-wrenching realization that she could never fix it.

On Homeworld, they would inform new Kindergarteners that the feeling was normal. After a Millennia or so, the feeling would begin to fade. If you werelucky, it might even go away. If Earth had taught Peridot anything, it was that she was anything but lucky.

When she heard a knock on the door, she assumed that it was Steven needing to expel his waste. She shuffled into the corner so that he could keep his privacy, and so he wouldn't see her cry.

"Come in," she called out. She heard him shuffle in and close the door gently.

"Peridot?" The gem in question stiffened when she realized that she had invited Amethyst in instead of Steven.

The purple gem walked over to the tub and pulled the curtain away.

"Are you okay?" Her voice, quiet for once, was edged with concern.

"I will continue to function," she replied as she tried to re-bury her emotions.

After a moment, Amethyst spoke up again, "It's okay if you don't know how to summon your weapon. We can teach you."

Peridot felt tears prick her eyes.

"I can't summon a weapon," she told her. Her hands subconsciously went to her gem.

She heard Amethyst start to laugh. Peridot glared at her. This wasn't funny! When Amethyst saw that she was being serious, she tried her best to stop. It didn't keep her from smiling.

"Sorry, but," she let out another snigger before continuing, "Peri, all gems can summon weapons. Just because Homeworld said you couldn't doesn't mean you can't."

She jumped up as she lost control of her emotions.

"No, that's not it! Why do I always have to spell it out for you clods? I don't have a weapon, and it's because of you cruddy gems and your cruddy rebellion for this cruddy planet!"

She couldn't see Amethyst's face through her tears, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"What do you mean?" Amethyst asked quietly.

Peridot sat back down, feeling vulnerable.

"Most of the gems involved in the Crystal Gem’s Rebellion were members of the lower caste. When Homeworld lost--" She cut herself off, deciding to rephrase. "They didn't want another one, so when lower caste gems emerge, their weapons are..." she touched her gem again.

She could remember summoning it for the first time. The surge of power she felt when she pulled it out of her gem; the way it felt when she held it. It was right where it belonged.

"Their weapons are what?" the gem next to her probed.

"...confis-cated," she cursed her voice for cracking.

It felt right in her hands, and she handed it over to someone else's. It was tossed away with other weapons, forgotten and abandoned. She would give anything to be able to touch the pommel again, to have it in her grip. But she never would, all chances to ever get it back were gone the minute she decided to help the Gems. No, that wasn't it. She had ridden herself of every chance to wield it the moment she handed it over. The realization hit her hard, that it was her fault. She was the reason she had given it up. It was her fault that she had given Homeworld such blind loyalty.

When she felt arms wrap around her, her first instinct told her that she was being strangled.

She struggled in its grasp, worried that she'd be poofed and harvested.

"Shhhhh." She remembered Amethyst's presence in the room, and the shaky truce between the other gems.

She stopped and let Amethyst squeeze her. She grasped the strap of her tank top and wrung it out with her tiny hands.

"They were the only thing I knew. I didn't know what I was doing."

"It's going to be okay," Amethyst told her. She whispered comforting words as Peridot buried her head in her shoulder and sobbed quietly.

She had given away a part of her, and was never getting it back.


End file.
